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Show ie Sam, Provider, Sets Table Thrice Daily for His Family of Millions Frederick Cleveland - ' -PreJeat Tift'i Comaiflias on v t 1918. ty P-ioUc Ledser Cxi. 5S30.OOv,OC'O; clothing and S, 11,367.000; regular sup-tX-O.C'L'O; transportation, in-tses, in-tses, mules and road work, 4: pay of the army. $1,500,-. $1,500,-. . !iis the way that the main an estimate for appropria- Rre than $5,000,000,000 ran 'PJcrt of a much smaller .-- ;-:is nzier arms today. While rr rtir?ed miatar- program the ci. 'loafer represent actual re-z''X re-z''X they serve to show the rr. r"K!ative importance of the W subsistence division of the - l-'-ermaster general. 7 W for the army has never P i tnatter of grave concern, 7 - that our gTanaries have ncnirs over and oar ; ri actually look to the -i- to? for things needed. The 3 supplying the army was " ' ootrpany had ita mees. Z-''tid its supply sergeant or .. ch-ilians might call ' I Mvls of the several messes 'Vt-'t0,thr 7 regiments and ' Eeveral quartennasters They bought In the local w wboleEale just like any Provisions. 1 oes: understand what this yj ' n it is said that at the time Iwlared we had only one t 'feaing-jjn looking after sub-ti sub-ti i, jvg to tljis work ony "... 'f'ais time. Then came the -:,trm men Th,s wag tQ. ca!' or a second and a !';:'i'ba' 0ur "lies tad armies ;-; '- ,Jrser and vre v,ere asked Both Inland and over-Station over-Station was congested, the r . of Rossia and Rumania :!'.Si-:tat oS' Sesides our army JM ,he of our allies there Cro6 and some 200,000.- ' .'''vhW4 and in Eur0p6 who 'fit'- ?;'t,Jde of the business oar-'..; oar-'..; ,": 'lae Government Is difficult c' 0r MiPrehend." said the ' '' 6bsistence division "a tti' lht amounts to $1,000,--' ,a Sill one which will be " " ur army grows. C!u of the total amount about dirty items. Utms on the subsistence "'(e- is an enormous busl- li i' Ei0h must i'-andicd btz-g specialists, potato and onion specialists, prune specialists, special-ists, and so on for each line. "There is not only the question of quantity and quality of each thing to be bought to meet military requirements, require-ments, but in many instances plans must be made to buy a year in advance. ad-vance. Then there is danger of upsetting upset-ting food prices for every one. "The demand of the army, large as it seems, on many things is less than 1 per cent of the whole. There are certain things, however, that the army must have in larger proportion tomatoes, toma-toes, for example. When the food expert ex-pert was put to work on a diet for our soldiers and the question was raised as to how we could cut down the water content of canned goods and save cargo space, the canned tomato was one of the things saved. Here is the entry in the standard daily mess allowance, based on a theory of averages: aver-ages: Canned tomatoes: cmantity. one-Eixteenth one-Eixteenth of a can. value, one-third of a cent. "Tomatoes Is one of the twentfr-eeven twentfr-eeven items which can be drawn in a day's ration in quantities as desired so long as the total doesnt exceed forty-one forty-one cents a day per man. "The soldiers don't have to eat tomatoes. toma-toes. They are simply on the list. When eah week each company in the training camps and cantonments meet with their old bills of fare before them they can tell the mess sergeant to spend the one-third of a cent per man per day for something else. But they don't do it. They all want tomatoes. Some want more, some less. Week in, week out, the demand for tomatoes continues. Each mess sergeant's order goes to the camp quartermaster: the department quartermaster's order comes to the quartermaster general: and when we foot up all of the orders from all of the camps it is found that the. army needs rot 1. but about 15 per cent, of all the season's pack. "Thi was also the case with other canned goods on the list. Because the ms is so far away from the source, certain things can best be furnished m a"d we take a large slice out cf available stocks. But whether 1 oer cent or 15. the business re-aui.-os oreanization for careful handling. Three floors of one of those grat temporary war-office buildings on fe Mall, near the Capitcl. are needed to house the Washington enO of the suKsistei.ee division. Here is the mH coods section: over there is the packing-hou.e products section: ,,,,- rinw,, (he is thejr"rr section, the butter and butter substitutes substi-tutes section, the milk section, etc One of the most interesting of all is the laboratory where men are at work day after day cooking and sampling the foods offered for sale before contracts con-tracts are made. It's enough to make an octogenarian want to Join the army to go into that laboratory and see with what care the foods are picked out. The special hobby just now is dehydrated dehy-drated vegetables and special things for trench use. It happens that the same man is in charge of these things and the laboratory, because they are largely experimental. Here is a meal for the vest pocket all you have to do" to add water. There is a week's' rations sealed in a tin that will fit the hip pocket for the poor fellows wounded or out in No Man's Land. "But the question of price goes further fur-ther than the army budget," continued the subsistence head. "As a result of competition the price of food has gone up from 50 to 200 per cent. This affects every one who has to buy food. Imagine what would have happened if we had all kept on as we started out the army, the navy and tho Allies buying against each other. We had to get together as a matter of business. And we had to consider the public, too. for if we bought all the potatoes or canned goods of one section that would have worked a double hardship on the civilian population popula-tion they would have to pay the high prices in other markets, plus the cost of getting the food back into their own district. The only remedy was for the Government to step in and provide a single centra! place where we couid all go to do our trading. This is the service rendered by the food administration. ad-ministration. No one will ever know the service rendered by them. They . - up a counter here in Washington. Of certain things they get the whole visible supply back of this counter that is. they don't have the food, but thev control it. The representatives of the army, the navy, the Red Cross and thp Miles get together the war demand. de-mand. Mr. Hoover does the allotting." To find out how the "controlled" goods were handled I went over to tne food administration. They were very vareful to explain that they allotted food, but had nothing to do with prices. "hat happens is this, said the canned goods controller: "The army, v the navy, the Red Cross and the Allies, th.-nusrh thoir representatives, ea"h t'l us how much they will need. We add all their demands together. We also get a report from each canner throughout the whole country on the number of acres of tomatoes and beans and peas and other things grown for him, and what he expects to put up. The old way was for the canner to get the cash needed by him during the growing and packing season to pay for his fruit, vegetables and labor by selling sell-ing 'futures' to middlemen and wholesalers. whole-salers. That is, he made a contract for his pack and got'advances' on it. This was a thing that we had to take into account. We could not stop the sale of 'futures." If we did it would stop the business. Yet we had to control con-trol it so that the Government could get its supply direct without paying a middleman's profit. We do it this way: If we find that the total war demand for tomatoes is S3 per cent of the estimated pack, each packer is notified noti-fied that the Government will take 33 per cent. Then his sales of futures are limited to 67 per cent. We also have each packer include in all his contracts or 'futures' an option giving the Government the right to buy more than 33 per cent if that is the figure named, so long as the pack is still in their hands undelivered. This distributes dis-tributes the war demand equally over the whole country. "But what about the price?" "Each kind of controlled goods is taken at a price to be agreed on. What happens is this: The war industries board makes a careful study of cost of production, and the packer agrees to a price which will enable him to pay the farmer, the laborer and the overhead cost and still have a reasonable reason-able profit. In other words, what we do is to make an inventory of the tomatoes and pumpkins in the field, and get together the probable war demand de-mand before the pack. The war industries in-dustries board acts in an advisory, capacity, and the army and navy buy the goods with'this information before them." "Don't they have the right to commandeer?" com-mandeer?" "Yes. But you see they don't have to use it. I suppose you might call it a friendly commandeer. Tor, of course, t.-e Government could take what it needs if necessary, and the person from whom goods are taken could not expect more than a fair profit. But it is a good thing for the farmer, the e-.i.-t-p'- pypybodv bqpge they know Just what they can depend on for a market before the tomatoes and pumpkins are grown." At the "bid goods" branch of the subsistence division I asked how they handled this end of the business. "The best way to answer your question, ques-tion, I think," said the head of the branch, "is to give you our written Instruction, In-struction, which has in it this illustration: illus-tration: Let us assume that we get an overseas 'call' for 10,000 cases of jam. This is the way It would be handled: "First- this 'call' or request from General Pershing is sent to the jam section. "Second. The jam section determines from which depot quartermasters information in-formation should be requested as to prices and deliveries obtainable, and tends out inquiries to such depot quartermasters. It is expected that these inquiries will be 6ent to all depot quartermasters located in lonee that may produce the commodities desired, in order to afford the broadest possible possi-ble market. "Third. On receipt of such Inquiry the depot quartermaster will secure definite, accurate and complete Information In-formation as to prices and deliveries obtainable in liis territorial zone, and will transmit this Information to this office. "Fourth. The jam section decides which offers are most advantageous, and with the approval of the officer in charge o the purchase branch instructs in-structs the depot quartermaster, or depot quartermasters, as the case may be. to buy. "Fifth. This plan enables the makers of jam in California to submit their bids to the depot quartermaster in San Francisco, the makers of jam in Missouri to the depot quartermaster in St. Louis, etc. so that such manufacturers manu-facturers of jam as desire to bid. no matter where located, will have an opportunity op-portunity furnished to them by the depot quartermaster In the zone in which the jam manufacturer is located. lo-cated. The seller and buyer are brought into close touch. Each seller does business only with the. nearest depot quartermaster, by whom the orders or-ders are issued and by whom the payments pay-ments will be made. No seller under this plan will do business with mere than one depot quartermaster.- as the zones in which the depot quartermasters quartermas-ters have jurisdiction are definitely defined. de-fined. There will be no conflict or overlapping of operations. " The other "bid" purchases are handled in much the same way. with this exception: The depot quartermasters' quarter-masters' requests and estimates are first tabulated; when the total needed as determined takes the place of the overseas "call" In the procedure de-ppvlb.t. |
